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look after 'too big' a region would adversely affect its efficiency. Yet the Housing Authority is also looking after the whole territory with just one council and one department, and directly serving a population of 3 million. The Royal Hong Kong Police Force too, is looking after the whole territory with just one department, providing service to nearly 6 million people and the Legislative Council also serves the whole territory. During its short period of operation for merely 2 to 3 years, the policy of having two councils and two departments has already revealed its disadvantages before any advantage can be seen. The Municipal Services Branch is going to be reorganized; the two Departments want to become independent of each another; with another grade of officers will be put in between to act as coordinator...... Despite all these measures, there is still a divergence of policies. If, in future, each of the two Departments implements a different hawker's policy, with different requirements for issuing licences to places of entertainment and restaurants, etc., the authorities will eventually, either become a laughing stock or it might even lead to chaos. Moreover, will the staff concerned respond favourably to such measures?
Upon the reorganization of municipal services, the Government should really review its policy of having 'two Councils and two Departments'. I wonder if the Government can consider setting up an ad hoc group to look into the possibility of amalgamating the two Councils and two Departments. An amalgamation does not mean that a certain party is going to swallow up another party, nor will vested interests suffer any losses. In any case, one group of people will replace another. If something is not done to rectify this anomaly before 1997, then the Government will be unable to prove that it has the sincerity and ability to hand over an integrated structure to the Government of the future Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Many people have spoken on this issue on many occasions, but in order to be accountable to my own conscience I have to repeat my point. I don't expect that my words will be heeded. The United Kingdom, being a great nation can deal with questions without any logic and morality, so how can we believe that the Hong Kong Government will put in more effort for the further political situation in order. So today I am really perplexed and frustrated. However, I hope my feeling will just like the weather today, disappear soon.
Finally, I know that politics is undoubtedly complicated and the thinking of politicians is also beyond comprehension. Nevertheless, one cannot always make use of 'politics' as an excuse to turn simple matters into complicated ones and transform a working council into a political scapegoat! With these humble words, I support the motion.
(Miss Juliana Li arrived at 3:25 p.m.)
MISS FOK PUI-YEE (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, regarding the work of the Council, many colleagues have already expressed a lot of valuable views. I do not intend to repeat again. Therefore, I will speak on a topic outside the jurisdiction of the Urban Council as the theme of my speech for this Annual Conventional Debate, i.e. ill-treatment of old people. The purpose of bringing out this problem of ill-treatment of old people is that I hope the Central Government will really look at this problem actively.
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Hong Kong is a place inhabited by both the Chinese and Westerners. Though the Chinese traditional culture is still the main trend here, as time goes by, the traditional concepts of the Chinese have been influenced to a great extent. Take, for instance, the concept of care for the elderly. In the past, there was a common saying that, 'In a family, an old person is like a treasure.' However, with changes in the population structure and the aging of the population of Hong Kong, the problem of old people is becoming more serious and the status of old people has been affected.
According to statistics, there will be more than 900,000 people who are aged over 60 in Hong Kong by the year 2001, representing 14.1% of the total population of Hong Kong and 4.1% higher than the standard of 10% set by the United Nations. This shows that our population is aging at a fast rate. As a result, the problem of old people arises and the problem which we were most concerned about in recent years should be the problem of 'ill-treatment of old people.'
In June 1985, a report on ill-treatment of old people was jointly published by the Department of Applied Social Studies of Hong Kong Polytechnic and Hong Kong Council of Social Service. In the report, it was pointed out that the ill-treatment of old people has become a serious social problem in Hong Kong. It is estimated that about 3.2% to 6.8% of the old people in Hong Kong are being ill-treated.
There are 2 types of ill-treatment of old people: physical and mental ill-treatment. Physical ill-treatment includes assault, slapping, pinching and spraining, etc. Mental ill-treatment includes harassment, deprivation of rights, negligence and lack of care, etc. According to relevant information, two-thirds of the old people ill-treated are suffering from chronic diseases such as rheumatism and hypertension and one-third of them are disabled. Therefore we should not delay in seeking solutions to this problem.
With regard to the solutions, I would like to raise the following 6 points:
1. Stepping up publicity and educational work
In the past, the Government only shouldered little responsibility for the care of old people and the duty for taking care of them mainly rested with their children. However, recently there were many cases concerning old people being deserted or ill-treated. This reflects that the younger generation now have a very different concept of the elderly. This phenomenon, however, may be the result of the influence of the prevailing trend of nuclear families, which makes the status of old people very much different from before, and therefore leading to the ill-treatment of old people. Hence I hope that the Government will increase publicity and educational work to inculcate in the new generation a correct